The church is not a group of people who believe all the same things; the church is a group of people caught up in the same story, with Jesus at the center. from Inspired
00207 – What is the Church?
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00193 – Guests, Not Hosts
If our churches aren’t very inclusive, it might be because too many of us have mistaken ourselves for the Giver of the Feast. We’re not hosts extending invitations. We’re guests among guests. Yet we behave as if having arrived earlier than others has given us...
00182 – No Ideal Church
There is no ideal church, no invisible church… No, it is the church of parking lots and potluck dinners that comprises the ones formed and forming the continuing story of Jesus Christ in the world.
00107 – Grace: What God Has Done
Jesus forgave a thief dangling on a cross, knowing full well the thief had converted out of plain fear. That thief would never study the Bible, never attend synagogue or church, and never make amends to those he had wronged. He simply said, “Jesus, remember me,” and...
00103 – Hell Cannot Prevail
As long as Christians are breaking the bread and pouring the wine, as long as we are anointing the sick and baptizing sinners, as long as we are preaching the Word and paying attention, the church lives, and Jesus says the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
00069 – Religion Confused with Politics
C. S. Lewis observed that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics…allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist.
00041 – Memory and Eucharist
Meals are the settings in which families rehearse their stories, repeatedly trading tales and histories, realizing afresh what it means to be a Webber, a Clapp, or whomever. Without memory there is no identity or vision and so no personhood. The Eucharist is the...
00009 – Singing and Worship
If singing “to God” or “to the Lord” could become our true focus, our passionate center—not the leadership style, the production and staging, or the music performance of our worship—what a difference it would make in our churches! Instead, our people often find...